“We are making history here! The VNL is a huge step for volleyball and it has truly taken us to the next level. All over the world, we ensured the same standard of arenas – the same “look and feel” throughout the VNL. Secondly, we increased prize money for the women’s champion to make it equal with the men’s which is so important for our sport. We also made a decision to offer prize money during the round robin phase. In total this amounted to more than 7 million USD. This is a big investment for us.

Our vision for volleyball is to be modern and innovative. We are always trying to advance volleyball, by using the latest technology and partnering with some of the biggest companies in the world, like Microsoft for digital transformation and IMG for TV production and distribution. Our total cumulative TV audience for the first edition of the VNL was 1.2 billion people. This is a great base, and we will work hard to better this in 2019.”